During the BBC commentary of the Closing Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, they quoted Zhang Yimou, its director as having said, “No other country in the world can do mass choreography like China. Except North Korea”. In doing so Zhang Yimou brought to the fore the uneasy links between state oppression, large-scale group organization, spectacle and ‘mass choreography‘. Zhang Yimou, is famed for his direction of Wuxia films, Hero and House of Flying Daggers; which are notable for their epic battle scenes and colour co-ordinated landscapes. The Closing Ceremony saw hundreds of performers moving in clockwork -like unison. There is something simultaneously impressive as well as fearsome about such a large group operating like this. Within the context of a ceremony it is entertaining - when the same techniques and visual bravado are transposed to the armies of an ancient mystical dynasty (as in Yimou’s films) it makes for riveting cinema.
However we need only consider the ‘Mass Games’ (see below) of North Korea to feel a certain unease. These occur as celebratory events on days of national holiday or the birthdays of past and present rulers such as Kim Jong-il. These ‘games’ emphasize themes of political propaganda, military might, discipline, unity and youth; and their roots lie in 19th century nationalist movements.
Dissolution of individuality necessary lies at the root of this kind of choreography, it is the group pattern that is emphasized and prized - though born out of individual action. It is possible to participate without having an awareness of the overarching visual effect. This leads to ethical concerns about participation in systems in which you are blind as to their purpose or consequence.
There is a moment in the ceremony when the performers clamber up a steel frame tower, the scale and distance of the camera shot reminds me of ants scurrying up an ice-cream cone. The synchronized movement of a sea of limbs creates a whirring visual effect that seems impossible without the aid computer manipulation. It is an enviable master class in the co-ordination of performers. The figures on this bare structure call to mind a number of recent paintings by British artist Tim Parr, who recently exhibited works in a show called ‘Man and Space’ at the Keith Talent Gallery (May 15 - June 22, 2008).
In particular a painting titled Construction (2007, oil on linen 40 by 35cm, see above); naked men are building something - it seems like a tower, but not enough of the structure is represented to make any confident guesses. No one is in discernable communication with the other, but each seemingly knows what do; despite the abundance of flesh and their proximity to each other there is little touching. They seem no more liberated than flies on a web. At the same time the press release observes, “figures reach, climb, and contort, building towards the indefinite”. This spotlights an aspirational element to the enterprise, it is troubling because there is no indicator as to what they strive for. The painting is also reminiscent of news documentary footage of Chinese construction workers erecting stadia with frightening speed, reminding the world of the advantages of a cheap and gargantuan labour force. Quoting again from the press release: “Parr’s figures organically fold into one another using their forms to generate architecture and patterning in each painting ever blending artifice and reality.” The figures’ service to the larger schema of the visual structure of the painting is equivalent to the individual in society whose personal needs or desires are subordinate to a more dominant power structure. Parr’s use of computer-graphic-modelling programs as part of the drawing stage of his paintings - perhaps more evident in an untitled work which depicts office workers in various states of tumultuous undress - hurtling in a void - to and from the viewer - compliments our sense of sprawling bureaucratic systems underpinning so much of human activity - taunting notions of ‘free will’ in the process.
These restraints of the individual dovetail into mass choreography as enforcer of discipline. This is especially apparent with one of the most popular Youtube postings of all time: "Thriller" as performed by inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center. Here we can witness several hundred inmates, head to toe in regulation orange uniform re-enacting Michael Jackson’s music video - with music blasted from the tannoy into the prison’s central courtyard. A documentary made about this Youtube clip features the governor of the prison boasting the decline of crime since his enforcement of these dance routines. In the re-enactment they are all in orange - there is no one playing Michael Jackson, none of the prisoners are authorized to be the star - ‘the individual‘, yes there is a prisoner at the apex of the triangle but he is not differentiated in the way a front singer normally is from his or her dance troupe. The video has clearly being filmed from a balcony above the courtyard - it is from this angle that the prisoners would usually be surveyed and kept in order. It is from above that choreography becomes coherent, and those occupying this second level are the wardens. It is painfully apt that for all the skill and energy the prisoners’ bring to their roles, their characters are zombies, the lumbering, lifeless undead. It is worth restating the popularity of this posting, it has had nearly 18milliosn hits to date.
These figure in part attests to the popularity of a great dance routine full stop. There has been a boom in the popularity of collective social activity with strangers, be this in the proliferation of flashmobs, or the spread of Line Dancing nights. It is important to point out that there is often a great satisfaction to be found in ‘getting the steps right’ within a group, being part of a massive ensemble. British Military Fitness, is a work-out service with ex-army personnel who model their regimes on how they would engage with troops, their classes take place on Clapham Common with growing attendance. The attraction to such environments is possibly a correlative (and corrective) to the ever increasing physical isolation of the individual and ‘soloness‘ in our cities.
There is a character in the science-fiction series, Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, called Odo, he is a shape-shifter, his natural form is a gelatinous state, he can take any form and is usually humanoid. However for a period of time every day he must slop in a bucket or becomes a puddle, at this moment he collapses without restraint into formlessness; it’s a biological demand like sleep that cannot be bypassed. Odo is a tortured character, who knows nothing of his origins, he was discovered floating through space as a non-descript blob. For much of the series he yearns for knowledge of his origins. Eventually he comes to discover, he is one of an entire race like himself, shape-shifters, who live on a planet on the outskirts of the solar system. He makes his way to this planet, surprised not to find cities, roads, any signs of civilization as he expects it to be. He finally comes across a shimmering silver lake; intuitively he takes liquid form and pours himself in to it. This lake is in fact ‘The Great Link’, Odo’s entire race reside in this lake (see below), indivisible from each other, their bodies are borderless, thoughts are shared as one, for his race this is the most pleasurable and harmonious place to be, it is here that Odo’s anxieties are quelled, that he finds the sense of home long searched for. We can imagine ourselves like Odo, periodically compelled to give up shape…Although we prize our uniqueness and individual mobility, it seems that there are also parallel desires, conflicting even, to dissipate into a crowd, a mob, a gig, a great link; that will soothe the pain, challenges, anxiety and vulnerability of individuation. It is not the desire itself that we should be weary of, but the manipulation of it, here lies our trap.
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